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Filipino torta, quiche style

I love me some torta, a Filipino dish akin to a stuffed omelet. But there’s a technique to it that I just cannot master — the pan flip. It scares the hell out of me, so I’ve avoided cooking it for years because I cannot do the pan flip. Above, on the left, you see an intact, traditional torta. Here’s what one of my fails looks like:

See the break toward the right? It is an offense to my Filipino heritage. So when I finally figured out, a few years ago, what a quiche was, I thought to myself — that doesn’t sound so far from a torta; why can’t it be made like that?

First brown the ground pork, then add the onions. When the onions are translucent, add the garlic, then add the tomatoes. When the tomatoes are basically liquefied, add the potatoes.

When the potatoes are tender, add the spinach, and heat through, but don’t overcook. Salt and pepper to taste.

As soon as the spinach is heated through, drain the meat mixture (giniling, in Tagalog) in a colander and set aside.

Take the eggs and scramble them.

Then add the giniling and mix it all up.

After mixing the giniling and egg, prep two large muffin pans with cooking spray and preheat your oven to 375 degrees. The oven should be ready by the time you scoop the torta mixture into each muffin cup.

Use a 1/3 measuring cup to scoop the mixture into each muffin cup. You can add a little bit more or less as needed, but don’t let the mixture overflow the cup.

Then place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. My oven runs hot, so I only need 20 minutes.

After 20-25 minutes, here’s how it should all look — perfect serving sizes, nice pleasant crust, and most importantly, no dreaded pan flip.

I usually put them on a wire rack so they can cool off, but that’s not entirely necessary, I think.

Here’s how they look inside. I love this evolution of the torta — it uses fewer eggs and much less oil, so its unintentionally healthier, and did I mention there’s no more dreaded pan flip? Seriously, breaking three torta during my first go round on this recipe really traumatized me. They’re super easy to freeze and I’ve been eating them for breakfast on my new early shift, making everyone who passes by hungry from the aroma. I have not yet calculated the calorie count on this recipe — I usually eat two of these little hockey puck-looking things for breakfast, plus a couple of slices of whole wheat toast — but from the ingredients, you can tell they’re really high in protein.

Torta is also extremely adaptable — I’ve previously included shrimp in this recipe, and it wouldn’t be hard to include other types of vegetables, as long as they’re chopped small enough.